‘You just can’t walk up to people with brown skin and say give me your papers,’ a federal judge told Border Patrol attorneys at a hearing challenging recent immigration sweeps.

As it turns out, if there are no consequences, then you can actually do this.

oh you can’t? and what is anyone gonna do about it?

This is settled law. 8 U.S.C. § 1357(a)(3) allows immigration officers to conduct warrantless searches and interrogations “within a reasonable distance” of the border. The term “reasonable distance” has been defined by regulation (8 C.F.R. § 287.1) as within 100 miles of any U.S. international boundary or coastline.

There is one exception in case law: they cannot stop vehicles at random without “reasonable suspicion” outside of fixed checkpoints (based on United States v. Brignoni-Ponce, 422 U.S. 873 (1975)).

The judge has not decided the case yet, but she likely understands the above well, and any judgement will be narrow and specifically within the confines of existing statute and precedent. U.S. border security laws have always been incredibly broad and arguably draconian. Successive administrations on the left and the right have kept it that way.

"After the January sweep, the man who led it, Chief Patrol Agent Gregory Bovino, said his agents specifically targeted people with criminal and immigration histories. However, a CalMatters investigation revealed that the Border Patrol had no criminal or immigration history on 77 of the 78 people it arrested."

so just being an immigrant?

That judge is going straight to jail, no?

This is not a country of law. It’s a country of power.

I've seen police in german trains doing precisely this.